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1 Samuel 18:1-19:24 Key verse: 18:3 Jonathan¡¯s Love and Saul¡¯s Jealousy ¡°And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself.¡± In today¡¯s passage, we will learn about the godly friendship between David and another young hero, Jonathan. Jonathan¡¯s love for David was so deep and sometimes hard for us to understand. It was an unlikely friendship. It stood as a contrast to Jonathan¡¯s father King Saul¡¯s jealousy of David. May God give us and our fellowship this loving and godly friendship. Part 1. Jonathan¡¯s Godly Love for David (18:1-4) Look at verse 1. "After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself.¡± At the end of Chapter 17, David had been talking with Saul after his stunning victory over Goliath. Saul asked David, ¡°Whose son are you, young man? David said, ¡®I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.¡± Saul¡¯s son Jonathan seemed to be there to witness David¡¯s great victory. Jonathan was the hero also back in Chapter 14 when he and his armor bearer took on a Philistine outpost killing 20 Philistines. That battle spread to an even larger victory of the army of Israel over the army of the Philistines. It was almost the same story as that of David and Goliath. Jonathan had become a great war hero. He was the prince of Israel. He was in line to become the king with his birthright. A young man, Jonathan had a promising future ahead. But now this shepherdboy David entered the scene out of nowhere. David was the new hero. ¡°Hurray for David! He defeated Goliath when no one else could!¡± People seemed to forget about Jonathan. How would you feel if you were Jonathan? When a little bit neglected. When someone rises like a morning sun, but you disappear like a sunset. No more praise from people, no more things to boast about. At that time, are we jealous? or do we feel frustrated? Could we become jealous toward the one who rises like sun? But Jonathan was not jealous of David. To the contrary, Verse.1 says ¡°Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself.¡± Jonathan has the exact opposite reaction toward David. Rather than viewing David as his rival for the future promising leader of Israel, he loved David as himself. It says he became one in spirit with David. It means they shared the same desires and motivations in their heart. Before facing Goliath, David said, ¡°It is not by the sword that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord¡¯s, and he will give you into our hands.¡± (17:47) Interestingly Jonathan also expressed the same faith as David's before his battle. Chapter 14 verses 6 says ¡°Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few.¡± What was the common link between these two young men? Their faith in God to save them was same. Their love for God was same. Their devotion to God was also same. When they shared the same heart for God, Jonathan loved David as himself. Verse 3 says, ¡°Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself.¡± A covenant is a binding agreement between two people. Marriage is a covenant. Two people promise to love one another until death separate them. Jonathan loved David so much he made this kind of covenant relationship with David. It was a sworn friendship before God which was not to be broken. But Jonathan¡¯s love for David was not just in words. Look at verse 4. ¡°Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt.¡± To fully demonstrate his love, Jonathan gave gifts to David. These were not just small gifts like a can of coffee or Thankyou card. They were his own treasured personal possessions. First was his robe. It must have been a royal robe of a prince. Probably it was one of a Myeungpum brand. He also gave his tunic, along with elegant shirt. Not just his royal clothes, but he also gave his weapons - his sword, bow and belt. Jonathan fought many battles with these weapons. They became as part of his life. He defended his life with these weapons. How could he give them away? Such was the extent of his love for David. He left himself defenseless and vulnerable to David - David could trust him. Here we see godly friendship is giving and sacrificial. Many human friendships are based on give and take¡¦ you give me some benefit, I¡¯ll take it. But then you can expect I will give you something in return sooner or later. As a college student, sometimes they tried to make friends with the smart students. Through that way, they could get help to do better in classes. People in company tries to make friends with those who can be helpful in their business and social networking contacts. We think, ¡°What can I get from these guys?¡± But godly friendship is the opposite. What can I give to my friend whom I love in God like myself. In our fellowship, there are many different persons with different characteristics, different background, different lifestyles. Rather in tent, we can see many students making godly friendships with each other. It's remarkable because it's difficult to find that friendship in our society where people make fellowships for their own benefit and interest. There are many friendships like fishing club, motor club, photo club, mountain climbing club and so on. However, if their own benefit and interest disappears, the fellowship also disappear. However, our fellowship was based on the Jesus Love. We share the same love for Jesus. We care for one another as Jesus does. We pray for one another as Jesus does. How wonderful when women are not full of jealousy and gossiping, but helping and praying for each other. Jonathan¡¯s sacrificial love is a model for all of us. It is a foreshadowing of Jesus who gave his life to cover our sins. So Jesus told us, ¡°Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.¡± (Jn15:13) Jonathan and David¡¯s friendship was not based on human qualities. It was based on their faith in God. May God bless us with godly friendships that are giving and sacrificial. Part 2. Saul¡¯s Jealousy (18:5-19:24) Now that we¡¯ve seen Jonathon¡¯s sacrificial loving friendship with David, we will look at Saul¡¯s opposite relationship toward David through jealousy. Verses 6 to 9 describe how the men were returning home after their victory over the Philistines and David's killing Goliath. The victory parades were held. The banners in the street read: ¡°Welcome Home Soldiers!¡± There was live music, singing and dancing. The women danced and sang joyfully for the troops with the praises: ¡°Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.¡± It seems like tens of thousands of the Philistines were defeated by the Israel army following David¡¯s killing Goliath. So David received credit for the victory. But Verse 8-9 says, ¡°Saul was very angry; this repeat of praising word bittered him. Then he said: ¡®They have credited David with tens of thousands, but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?¡¯ And from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David.¡± Saul was the king. When David seemed to get more credit, Saul started considering him as a threat to his rule. So his heart was filled with jealousy and he watched David with suspicion. Verves 10-11 say the next day David was playing the harp for Saul, as he had done in the past. Then an evil spirit came forcefully upon Saul until he hurled his spear trying to pin David to the wall, but David eluded him twice. When Saul allowed his heart to indulge in jealousy towards David, what happened? He opened the door of his heart to an evil spirit that filled Saul with murderous desires. In verses 12-16 it says Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with David and had left Saul. How terrible it was that the Lord had left Saul after repeated sins of disobedience and pride and now jealousy. The result was Saul became full of fear, including fear of David. He was afraid and even feared that David would rise to power over him. Actually, that¡¯s what God was doing, but Saul was too pride and blind to accept it. Saul tried to get David out of his mind so he sent him away with command over a thousand men. Then David¡¯s men experienced great victories. Verse 14 says, ¡°In everything he did he had great success, because the Lord was with him.¡± God was with David and gave him success. Then Saul was more afraid of David. His jealousy made him a slave of fear. He tried to kill David even using his daughters as bait for marriage. His plan was David would be killed by the Philistines. But God kept giving David victory. Verses 28-29 says, ¡°When Saul realized that the Lord was with David and that his daughter Michal loved David, Saul became still more afraid of him, and he remained his enemy the rest of his days.¡± Here we see the dangers of jealousy in our lives. Jealousy is defined as being resentful and envious toward a rival. That was the Saul¡¯s attitude toward David. We all admitted we also have fallen into the trap of jealousy many times. We can be jealous of classmates, co-workers and the same grade sheep and shepherd in our fellowships. In the company, we want the boss' acknowledgement so we can get promoted. In the family, we experienced sibling rivalry, fighting for Mom and Dad¡¯s attention and love. My first daughter Joy is good-tempered and mild. However, when there appears the second daughter, Se-un, she was puzzled. Some day, she was tried to imitate Taekwondo in front of Se-un and hit her naturally as if nothing had happened. I heard that a child sits down on his baby sister or brother with jealousy. Someone say that Jealousy is natural, not sinful, but jealousy is the result of sin when human separate himself from God. Someone said that jealousy comes when we are lacking something because we don¡¯t know what is the true blessing and how to get it. So we constantly compare ourselves with others. We live before people rather than before God. Essentially we love ourselves rather than loving God and loving others. Cain was jealous of his brother Abel and killed him. Abel loved God, Cain loved himself and didn¡¯t repent as God counseled him to do. Joseph¡¯s brothers were jealous of their father¡¯s love for Joseph until they wanted to kill him, but settled for selling him into slavery. The Pharisees were jealous of Jesus and had him put to death. We see it over and over again in the Bible. We must guard our heart against jealousy and hatred or we will become slaves of fear and hurt others. Most people think they are good because they haven¡¯t hurt anyone, but Jesus said (Mt 5:22),¡°¡¦anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject..¡± to the judgment of murder. Our jealousy comes from lack of love and trust in God¡¯s love. Instead Jesus taught us, ¡°Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.¡± Jesus called this the first and greatest commandment. Jesus also said, ¡°The second is like it: ¡®Love your neighbor as yourself.¡± (Mt22:37-39) Doesn't it sound familiar? Look at 18:1 again, ¡°Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself.¡± One in spirit is their shared love for God. And he loved David as himself. When we reject God¡¯s love, we become jealous and fearful of those God loves, as Saul was doing to David. But when we have love for God, we are generous and giving and loving like Jonathan. In Chapter 19, Saul does not repent but continues to try and kill David. Saul tells his son Jonathan and all his attendants to kill David. When he saw his plan for David killing through the hands of the Philistines not working, he made open his intention to kill David. Jonathan warned David. Then he went and spoke with his father trying to reason with him. Jonathan reminded his father of David¡¯s help in the past. He got his father to listen to reason and calm down. Surprisingly Saul listened to Jonathan and took this oath: ¡®As surely as the Lord lives, David will not be put to death.¡¯¡± Jonathan was able to persuade his father not to bring harm to David. Jonathan did his best to protect David. But once David comes back into Saul¡¯s presence, Saul again tries to kill David under the influence of an evil spirit. Through this, we can learn that the problem of jealousy can not be solved by self-reasoning or human efforts because it is the sin problem before God. We can only be freed from the agony of the Jealousy through our repent and Jesus blood on the cross. While preparing this message, I became eager for the godly friendship in our fellowship because godly friendship is the foreshadowing of Jesus' love toward us. The day before yesterday, last Friday 14 laymen from Anam 2nd Chapter had a short winter trip to Gangwon province taking the newly opened Kyungchun train. We lodged at a private residence and there we had a Samgyupsal party, watched national soccer match on TV and next morning played Jogk-gu together. Other than that, we had a new year key verse symposium sharing our struggles of faith made during last year. I thought that sharing our personal life with others in God is so valuable. Godly fellowship like that helps us to grow spiritually each other up to Jesus. Our fellowship in God makes our life happy and fruitful. On the other side, I could learn that when I separated myself from the love of God, the godly friendship can not be obtained because the sin problem like jealousy prevent me from becoming one in spirit with friend. Consequently, let's love first our God with all our heart and all our mind and all our strength. Let's love each other with God's giving and sacrificial love to us. May God fill us with his love so we love God and love one another as godly friends. |